TORONTO, Feb. 11, 2013 /CNW/ - International nutritional recommendations
from the World Health Organization and the Institute of Medicine call
for a replacement of saturated fatty acids (SAFA) with polyunsaturated
fatty acids (PUFA). CBC's The National February 10th story suggesting that this guidance should be reconsidered on the basis
of one recently published paper is misleading.

On 5 February 2013, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) published a paper
by Ramsden et al raising concerns on the impact of Omega-6 (a
polyunsaturated fat) as substitutes for SAFA. This paper contains a new
analysis of old data recovered from the Sydney Diet Heart Study (SDHS)
conducted in 1969-73. That study's participants, men with a history of
cardiovascular disease, were tested with very high doses of Omega-6 at
15 per cent of daily energy, which is more than three times the intake
level of Canadians (Canadian Community Health Survey 2.2).

CBC's viewers would have been better served had the story focused on the
substantial body of evidence supporting a recently approved health
claim in Canada advising consumers to replace dietary sources of
saturated fat with polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats from
vegetable oil to lower cholesterol. According to Statistics Canada,
over 40 per cent of Canadians have high cholesterol.

The evidence submitted to Health Canada in support of the claim by the
Vegetable Oil Industry of Canada concurs with the Institute of
Medicine's 'Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber,
Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein and Amino Acids' which included
evidence from both observational and clinical studies. This
authoritative report concludes that "monounsaturated and
polyunsaturated fatty acids reduce blood cholesterol concentration and
help lower the risk of heart disease when they replace saturated fatty
acids in the diet".

Research submitted to Health Canada in support of the claim's
application for approval included evidence showing that, as a result of
the replacement of saturated fat with unsaturated fats in individual
diets, LDL-cholesterol reduction ranged from approximately 0.4% to 2.8%
for every gram of fat that was replaced.

This reduction is significant because the literature shows that a one
per cent drop in cholesterol reduces the risk of heart disease by
approximately two per cent. Furthermore, the effects of the
substitution of dietary unsaturated fatty acids for saturated fatty
acids appear to be both achievable in a timely manner and sustainable.
In studies reviewed, benefits to individuals appear after just two and
a half weeks of dietary intervention.